STATE

Protesters are calling on Mississippi to erase the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, saying it's a divisive symbol that fails to represent a state where more than one-third of residents are African-American.

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said Thursday that he will not call Mississippi lawmakers back to the Capitol for an election-year special session to consider removing a Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.

Gov. Phil Bryant was among several Mississippi Republicans who criticized the Supreme Court's decision Thursday upholding the tax subsidies that are a key part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Mississippi's attorney general says the nation's largest tobacco company will pay the state $15 million to settle claims that it was underreporting the number of cigarettes it was shipping to the state.

A federal prosecutor said in court Thursday that Graeme Phillip Harris hatched a plan, after a night of drinking at a University of Mississippi fraternity house, to hang a noose on a campus statue of James Meredith, the first black student at Ole Miss.